Impartial voices on heating oil

It can be extremely difficult finding independent sources of information when it comes to heating oil prices and suppliers. A lot of websites and blogs appear to be independent, but end up being affiliated to an oil wholesaler or supplier. However, a page we found recently, with lots of good advice, is on MoneySavingExpert: Cheap heating oil: Find the cheapest prices & haggle down costs .

If you are a heating oil consumer and have done research into industry practices or simply for ways to get a better deal, please get in touch! You can either comment at the bottom of this page, or contact John and Julii directly.


2 Comments

by Neil Mason on 18 December 2010
I regulary order oil for about a dozen people in blocks of about 2500 litre to 4 or 5 addreses in a small village in Nottinghamshire I have found this very annoying as all oil suppliers seem to know exactly what each other are charging. What annoys me is that is not a few pence but point 3 or 4 of a penny in difference from firms 50 miles apart.

My best rule of thumb is to go on oilpricecheck.co.uk to check the average price of the U.K. see what the big companies like crown , chandlers, bayford etc. then contact a smaller supplier who normally under cut the lowest price by about .4 of a penny. However, I have known a local company drop 5p on 2300 litres, so fer the sake of 2 emails that's around 130 pounds off, so I think the price is agreed by all companies and only when they need to compete do they come down in price.

There should be a goverment cap on oil prices.These greedy fat cats should be fined for preying on vunerable people in near artic conditions. Most of my members had oil heating grants from warmfront like myself who currently has his thermostat on 12 degrees despite it being -2 outside with 3 small children for fear of having to order more before prices stabilise. Brent oil prices have risen 17% heating oil has risen 85% in my area WHY????

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by Alan Woodhead on 23 December 2010
I started from this same premise. My wife (the breadwinner and bill payer) has been unwilling to pay the current "inflated" prices and I have looked at where we go generally with keeping warm.

It would indeed be interesting to see whether the oil procucers, refineries or distributors have increased margin during this period of the year.

Perhaps its time for a bigger buying group that can build some real muscle?

Alan

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by Kev on 17 December 2010
The money saving expert website is pretty good and you are welcome to use http://heating-oil.blogs-uk.co.uk/ which is not affiliated and tracks pricing quotes daily for the national heating oil companies.
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by John Swindells on 17 December 2010
Great tips, thanks Kev! It's great for people to submit their own postcode-based quotations too.
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